Problem: Yadira's mom is buying hot dogs and hot dog buns for the family barbecue. Hot dogs come in packs of $12$ and hot dog buns come in packs of $9$. The store does not sell parts of a pack and Yadira's mom wants the same number of hot dogs as hot dog buns. What is the smallest total number of hot dogs that Yadira's mom can purchase?
Solution: Let's look at how many hot dogs and hot dog buns Yadira's mom has after buying the first few packs. Each pack of hot dogs contains $12$ hot dogs. Each pack of hot dog buns contains $9$ hot dog buns. She doesn't have the same amount of hot dogs and hot dog buns yet, she needs to buy more! When we keep going, we see that the multiples first meet at ${36}$. Hot dogs Hot dog buns Mathematically, we say that ${36}$ is the least common multiple of $12$ and $9$. In math notation this looks like: $ \text{lcm(12,9)} = {36}$. The smallest total number of hot dogs that Yadira's mom can purchase is ${36}$.